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Saturday, September 17, 2016

Cambodia - Phnom Penh Rated One of the World’s Least Livable Cities

Downtown Phnom Penh is seen from across the
Tonle Bassac river on Sunday. (Pring Samrang/Reuters)

Widespread
corruption, poor health care and a lack of adequate infrastructure continue to
make Phnom Penh one of the least livable major cities in the world, according
to the annual Global Livability Ranking, released on Thursday by the Economist
Intelligence Unit.

Phnom
Penh placed 127th out of 140 capital cities and commercial hubs, which were
ranked based on the availability and quality of public and private health care,
education, infrastructure, culture, environment and stability.

Miguel
Chanco, the unit’s lead analyst for Asean, said Phnom Penh’s position on the
index had remained static—it was ranked 126th last year—due to little
improvement across the board, with corruption continuing to be a major
drawback.

“Apart
from healthcare, one of Phnom Penh’s larger weak points is in the culture and
environment component of our study,” Mr. Chanco said by email. “Within this
category, the city fares quite poorly when it comes to the level of corruption,
which is one of the bigger drags on its score.”

He said
the unit rates stability—the level of threat of military conflict and social
unrest—as Phnom Penh’s strongest point, “which really does not say much given
how weak it is in the other components.”

“I do not
think this will remain the case for long, given the increasing risk of social
unrest in the lead-up to the 2017-18 elections,” Mr. Chanco added. Commune
elections are next year and national elections the year after.

“We
certainly cannot rule out a return to the sort of mass protests that affected
the city following the 2013 election, especially when considering the current
volatile interplay between the two main political parties.”

Mr.
Chanco said the capital’s infrastructure, including the quality of public
transport and energy supplies, also remained poor.

Mean
Chanyada, a spokesman for City Hall, dismissed the report and said the
government was working hard to improve services in the capital’s poorest
communities.

“I’m not
sure what criteria they used to give those scores,” he said. “But as a capital
city we have been trying our best to serve our people, provide public buses,
improve infrastructure. If they still don’t see the improvement of the living
standards of the people, we can’t do anything about it.”

Phnom
Penh’s skyline has changed dramatically in recent years as housing and
commercial development booms, but Sia Phearum, director of the Housing Rights
Task Force, said a lack of affordable housing was pushing the poorest residents
to the city’s outskirts, where they struggle to access health care and find
work.

“When the
government wants to develop in the urban poor communities, they always evict them
and give them very small compensation,” he said.

“They
cannot afford adequate housing so it means the poor have no right to live in
the city; it is just the rich who have the right to live in the city.”